Many conventional cameras, such as surveillance cameras, use constant active illumination by visible or infrared light sources. Unfortunately, such light sources may attract many types of insects which may significantly degrade the quality and ability of such cameras to provide useful images of a scene. For example, spider webs may accumulate near or on the front side of the cameras, and such spider webs may in turn attract and retain additional insects and/or debris. Thus, the quality of surveillance images are often degraded due to obstruction and interference by insects and spider webs. Even worse, the presence or movement of these objects may be interpreted by surveillance camera systems as movement and therefore cause certain systems, such as conventional video motion detection (VMD) systems, to continue recording. For example, it is not uncommon to end up with long but meaningless surveillance recordings of nothing but spider webs swinging in the wind, moths fluttering around, or spiders building webs. Such problems are exacerbated by the fact that many conventional camera systems are not effective in discerning real objects of interest (e.g., persons, vehicles) from spurious objects (e.g., insects or spider webs) or environmental changes (e.g., changes in lighting conditions, whether conditions, or other changes in the background).